(184.6) 4. The Father and the Son.
16:0.7 (184.7) 5. The Father and the Spirit.
16:0.8 (184.8) 6. The Son and the Spirit.
16:0.9 (184.9) 7. The Father, Son, and Spirit.
16:0.10 (184.10) We know very little about the action of the Father and the Son in the creation of the Master Spirits. Apparently they were brought into existence by the personal acts of the Infinite Spirit, but we have been definitely instructed that both the Father and the Son participated in their origin.
16:0.11 (184.11) In spirit character and nature these Seven Spirits of Paradise are as one, but in all other aspects of identity they are very unlike, and the results of their functioning in the superuniverses are such that the individual differences of each are unmistakably discernible. All the afterplans of the seven segments of the grand universe—and even the correlative segments of outer space—have been conditioned by the other-than-spiritual diversity of these Seven Master Spirits of supreme and ultimate supervision.
16:0.12 (184.12) The Master Spirits have many functions, but at the present time their particular domain is the central supervision of the seven superuniverses. Each Master Spirit maintains an enormous force-focal headquarters, which slowly circulates around the periphery of Paradise, always maintaining a position opposite the superuniverse of immediate supervision and at the Paradise focal point of its specialized power control and segmental energy distribution. The radial boundary lines of any one of the superuniverses do actually converge at the Paradise headquarters of the supervising Master Spirit.
1. Relation to Triune Deity
16:1.1 (185.1) The Conjoint Creator, the Infinite Spirit, is necessary to the completion of the triune personalization of undivided Deity. This threefold Deity personalization is inherently sevenfold in possibility of individual and associative expression; hence the subsequent plan to create universes inhabited by intelligent and potentially spiritual beings, duly expressive of the Father, Son, and Spirit, made the personalization of the Seven Master Spirits inescapable. We have come to speak of the threefold personalization of Deity as the absolute inevitability, while we have come to look upon the appearance of the Seven Master Spirits as the subabsolute inevitability.
16:1.2 (185.2) While the Seven Master Spirits are hardly expressive of threefold Deity, they are the eternal portrayal of sevenfold Deity, the active and associative functions of the three ever-existent persons of Deity. By and in and through these Seven Spirits, the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, or the Infinite Spirit, or any dual association, is able to function as such. When the Father, the Son, and the Spirit act together, they can and do function through Master Spirit Number Seven, but not as the Trinity. The Master Spirits singly and collectively represent any and all possible Deity functions, single and several, but not collective, not the Trinity. Master Spirit Number Seven is personally nonfunctional with regard to the Paradise Trinity, and that is just why he can function personally for the Supreme Being.
16:1.3 (185.3) But when the Seven Master Spirits vacate their individual seats of personal power and superuniverse authority and assemble about the Conjoint Actor in the triune presence of Paradise Deity, then and there are they collectively representative of the functional power, wisdom, and authority of undivided Deity—the Trinity—to and in the evolving universes. Such a Paradise union of the primal sevenfold expression of Deity does actually embrace, literally encompass, all of every attribute and attitude of the three eternal Deities in Supremacy and in Ultimacy. To all practical intents and purposes the Seven Master Spirits do, then and there, encompass the functional domain of the Supreme-Ultimate to and in the master universe.
16:1.4 (185.4) As far as we can discern, these Seven Spirits are associated with the divine activities of the three eternal persons of Deity; we detect no evidence of direct association with the functioning presences of the three eternal phases of the Absolute. When associated, the Master Spirits represent the Paradise Deities in what may be roughly conceived as the finite domain of action. It might embrace much that is ultimate but not absolute.
2. Relation to the Infinite Spirit
16:2.1 (185.5) Just as the Eternal and Original Son is revealed through the persons of the constantly increasing number of divine Sons, so is the Infinite and Divine Spirit revealed through the channels of the Seven Master Spirits and their associated spirit groups. At the center of centers the Infinite Spirit is approachable, but not all who attain Paradise are immediately able to discern his personality and differentiated presence; but all who attain the central universe can and do immediately commune with one of the Seven Master Spirits, the one presiding over the superuniverse from which the newly arrived space pilgrim hails.
16:2.2 (186.1) To the universe of universes the Paradise Father speaks only through his Son, while he and the Son conjointly act only through the Infinite Spirit. Outside of Paradise and Havona the Infinite Spirit speaks only by the voices of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:2.3 (186.2) The Infinite Spirit exerts an influence of personal presence within the confines of the Paradise-Havona system; elsewhere his personal spirit presence is exerted by and through one of the Seven Master Spirits. Therefore is the superuniverse spirit presence of the Third Source and Center on any world or in any individual conditioned by the unique nature of the supervisory Master Spirit of that segment of creation. Conversely, the combined lines of spirit force and intelligence pass inward to the Third Person of Deity by way of the Seven Master Spirits.
16:2.4 (186.3) The Seven Master Spirits are collectively endowed with the supreme-ultimate attributes of the Third Source and Center. While each one individually partakes of this endowment, only collectively do they disclose the attributes of omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. No one of them can so function universally; as individuals and in the exercise of these powers of supremacy and ultimacy each is personally limited to the superuniverse of immediate supervision.
16:2.5 (186.4) All of everything which has been told you concerning the divinity and personality of the Conjoint Actor applies equally and fully to the Seven Master Spirits, who so effectively distribute the Infinite Spirit to the seven segments of the grand universe in accordance with their divine endowment and in the manner of their differing and individually unique natures. It would therefore be proper to apply to the collective group of seven any or all of the names of the Infinite Spirit. Collectively they are one with the Conjoint Creator on all subabsolute levels.
3. Identity and Diversity of the Master Spirits
16:3.1 (186.5) The Seven Master Spirits are indescribable beings, but they are distinctly and definitely personal. They have names, but we elect to introduce them by number. As primary personalizations of the Infinite Spirit, they are akin, but as primary expressions of the seven possible associations of triune Deity, they are essentially diverse in nature, and this diversity of nature determines their differential of superuniverse conduct. These Seven Master Spirits may be described as follows:
16:3.2 (186.6) Master Spirit Number One. In a special manner this Spirit is the direct representation of the Paradise Father. He is a peculiar and efficient manifestation of the power, love, and wisdom of the Universal Father. He is the close associate and supernal adviser of the chief of Mystery Monitors, that being who presides over the College of Personalized Adjusters on Divinington. In all associations of the Seven Master Spirits, it is always Master Spirit Number One who speaks for the Universal Father.
16:3.3 (186.7) This Spirit presides over the first superuniverse and, while unfailingly exhibiting the divine nature of a primary personalization of the Infinite Spirit, seems more especially to resemble the Universal Father in character. He is always in personal liaison
